Al Howell

Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets are not coming to the Arrowhead Pond, but Schea Cotton and the Anaheim Roadrunners might be. The owner of the Roadrunners, Al Howell, said Wednesday he is close to signing a lease agreement for his team to play at the Pond. The minor league basketball team plans to play in ABA 2000, a proposed revival of the American Basketball Assn. that hopes to tip off in November.

Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets are not coming to the Arrowhead Pond, but Schea Cotton and the Anaheim Roadrunners might be. The owner of the Roadrunners, Al Howell, said Wednesday he is close to signing a lease agreement for his team to play at the Pond. The minor league basketball team plans to play in ABA 2000, a proposed revival of the American Basketball Assn. that hopes to tip off in November.

Bullfrog President and General Manager Stuart Silver is expected to be in Nevada today to make an offer to buy the Reno Rage of the West Coast Hockey League. Silver said he intends to place $250,000 from unspecified investors with a Nevada bankruptcy trustee. He said his agent, Canadian sports broker Al Howell, believes the offer has a good shot of being forwarded to a federal bankruptcy court.

The proposed ABA 2000 professional basketball league added two teams Monday, and the addition of an Anaheim team remains a possibility. Joe Newman, co-founder of the league, said the Anaheim Roadrunners did not meet a Monday deadline the league had set to confirm a playing site at the Arrowhead Pond. But the deadline has been extended until today, he said. "If our requirements are met, Anaheim will be admitted to the league," Newman said.

The proposed ABA 2000 professional basketball league is preparing to move ahead with a nine-team alignment without an Anaheim franchise, league co-founder Joe Newman said Tuesday. The Anaheim Roadrunners did not meet the league's requirement for confirmation of a playing site at the Arrowhead Pond Tuesday after a deadline had been extended for one day, Newman said.

The proposed ABA 2000 professional basketball league Thursday announced plans to begin play with eight teams in late December, and left the door open for the Anaheim Roadrunners to become the ninth. Al Howell, president of the proposed Anaheim franchise, said he "reached an agreement in principle" Thursday for his team to play at the Arrowhead Pond. Mike O'Donnell, the Pond's assistant general manager, confirmed the agreement.

Four Arizona businessmen pocketed a healthy profit last week by selling the franchise rights for a proposed Anaheim minor league basketball team--in a league that has yet to play a game. "We think Anaheim is a premier market," said Gary Elbogen, one of the businessmen. "We weren't going to walk away for nothing. This is a for-profit venture for all of us." Elbogen and his associates still own three other franchises in ABA 2000, a revival of the American Basketball Assn.

Sports figures were involved in 252 nationally reported police incidents, court appearances or other developments in 1995, for alleged offenses that ranged in gravity from shoplifting to murder, a Times study found. Items--involving current professional or college athletes, team employees or administrators-- are listed by date of resolution unless otherwise indicated. JANUARY Jan. 1--SHELDON KENNEDY, Winnipeg Jet player, charged with possession of marijuana. Resolution: Charges dropped.

The Bullfrogs' bid for a perfect Major League Roller Hockey regular season came to an end Thursday night at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, thanks to an old nemesis. Gerry St. Cyr, who throttled the Bullfrogs several times as a member of the Sacramento River Rats of the former Roller Hockey International, slipped a back-handed goal past goaltender Rob Laurie during the fourth round of a shootout and that proved to be enough for the Orlando Surge to post a 9-8 victory.

A proposal to place a minor league hockey team in the Anaheim Convention Center as early as the 1998-99 season looks promising, according to a Canadian sports agent brokering the sale of the Tucson Gila Monsters of the West Coast Hockey League to Stuart Silver, president and CEO of the Bullfrogs. "Mr. Silver is committed to bringing a professional minor league ice hockey team to Anaheim, and to that extent I am trying to work out a deal," Al Howell said Wednesday.

The Houston Rockets? Not interested in the Arrowhead Pond, at least right now. The Charlotte Hornets? Not looking elsewhere for their new arena, at least right now. The Clippers? Who knows? Officials at the money-losing Pond covet an NBA team, but pickings are slim in a league with no plans for expansion and most franchises playing in new arenas. As the Rockets shop for a new home, in Houston and elsewhere, the Anaheim effort to lure the team ran into a huge financial obstacle.